I have Phenom 2 X2 550BE I have unlocked 2 dis. cores now its a quad core. [email protected] GHZ. my other stats in the sig.
as for PCSX2 its latest BETA (1888) binary.
My question is. people keep saying dual cores are better for PCSX2 than quad-cores. I've got tremendous boost in performance for Windows games and apps after unleashing hidden cores. So should I just use PCSX2 like this or should I set it's affinity to 2 cores? will it improve performance? also any other configs to be made??

PCSX2 will only take advantage of 2 cores unless you run GSdx Software mode (which is usually slower than Hardware mode if you have a decent graphics card). You don't have to set any affinities while running a quad-core. That said, by all means, you could test it out to see if you can get a little more performance. You should change all other background processes to the other 2 cores, so that PCSX2 can have 2 cores all to itself.

you don't need to hide the 2 extra cores again you unlocked before - they simply won't be used that much because PCSX2 uses only 2 cores - as far as i know there's no loss or gain having a 2 or 4 core CPU running AT THE SAME SPEED

the thing is - most quad cores are clocked slightly LOWER than their dual core counterparts of the same family - thats the reason for all the mumbo-jumbo going on on the forum about dualcore being better

on windows and normal apps the performance is about the same or even better on the quad core though it runs at lower clock speeds because windows and some apps can use the 2 extra cores

but on PCSX2 about the only thing that really matters IS the clock speed - thats why higher clocked dualcores ARE better than lower clocked quad cores - but running dual and quad CPUs at the same speed or having the exact same CPU running in dual or quad mode should not make any big difference

what you can do to boost PCSX performance: i read the phenom X2 overclocks quite nice - so just crank up it's clock speed - that will most likely give you the most noticeable performance boost

then again you MIGHT want to disable the 2 unlocked cores again to cut down thermal output while overclocked - that way you might be able to get a few more clocks out of your cpu with your actual cooling solution

but don't overdo it or you might render your system unstable or even damage your hardware - but you already know that i guess

Thanks boogerthe2nd & umino!
I found that If I set it to use 2 cores. there is slight gain in performance! but still not playable (@1360x768 res GOW,SvR2010,GT4) and as for over-clocking. I did try it(upto 3.8 ghz!). but am on air cooling and temp at stock speeds it can go up 50-56 c!!

umino Wrote:then again you MIGHT want to disable the 2 unlocked cores again to cut down thermal output while overclocked - that way you might be able to get a few more clocks out of your cpu with your actual cooling solution

Thats a nice idea I will give it a try.
but I need the other cores for my Windows games. So I will wait till I can get a BIGGER, BETTER fan and then try over-clocking. thats

ALSO Does anyone have any idea what causes some games to stutter? like MGS 3 and FFXII. speeds are fine but camera moving and characters stutter.

Take into account that you might not be able to reach specially high frequencies on those extra cores.. because these are manufactured from original 4-cores CPUs with one or two "deffective" cores (that's why not all people can unlock the extra cores, it's a "luck" thing). I had a Phenom X3 OC to 3.8Ghz on 3 cores, but after unlocking the 4th one it was impossible to get past 3.1, that's because the 4th core was "deffective", wich doesn't mean it won't work or get errors, just that in this particular case, it couldn't handle the extra bump in speed.

If you can have your Phenom X2 in 2-core mode at 3.8Ghz and in 4-core mode at, say, 3.2, then it will perform much better in 2-core mode as far as pcsx2 is concerned.

(11-04-2009, 08:51 PM)dotHack Wrote: Take into account that you might not be able to reach specially high frequencies on those extra cores.. because these are manufactured from original 4-cores CPUs with one or two "deffective" cores (that's why not all people can unlock the extra cores, it's a "luck" thing). I had a Phenom X3 OC to 3.8Ghz on 3 cores, but after unlocking the 4th one it was impossible to get past 3.1, that's because the 4th core was "deffective", wich doesn't mean it won't work or get errors, just that in this particular case, it couldn't handle the extra bump in speed.

thats how almost any manufacturers get their "budget" versions of chips - the phenom X2, x3 and x4 are the same type of chip - they just took the ones that didn't pass quality test because of 1 or 2 defective cores, disable those and re-name them to X2 / X3 so they can still sell them and don't need to trash half of their production

so does nvidia - if a GPU has some defective shader units they just disable those and sell them as GS/GTS instead of GT/GTX

i think they get the different clock speeds the same way - at production stage the multiplier is not set until quality test finds out how fast the CPU can go without producing any errors and then they hard-wire / hard-code the multiplier according to the speed the CPU is considered error-free

if you are lucky and have one wich is not-so-defective then you can have those disabled cores / shader units / multiplier options re-enabled and have about the same power the higher priced version has while paying less

but you also might run into serious troubles then - specially when the stuff gets overclocked or put under heavy load

(11-04-2009, 08:51 PM)dotHack Wrote: Take into account that you might not be able to reach specially high frequencies on those extra cores.. because these are manufactured from original 4-cores CPUs with one or two "deffective" cores (that's why not all people can unlock the extra cores, it's a "luck" thing). I had a Phenom X3 OC to 3.8Ghz on 3 cores, but after unlocking the 4th one it was impossible to get past 3.1, that's because the 4th core was "deffective", wich doesn't mean it won't work or get errors, just that in this particular case, it couldn't handle the extra bump in speed.

If you can have your Phenom X2 in 2-core mode at 3.8Ghz and in 4-core mode at, say, 3.2, then it will perform much better in 2-core mode as far as pcsx2 is concerned.

I have tested it fairly stable upto 2.5 ghz on 4 cores (12 hours or so) at stock cooling. It got quiet hot so I gave up further. so I am gonna try keep somewhere around that. cant wait for the next iteration of PCSX2!

umino Wrote:f you are lucky and have one wich is not-so-defective then you can have those disabled cores / shader units / multiplier options re-enabled and have about the same power the higher priced version has while paying less

but you also might run into serious troubles then - specially when the stuff gets overclocked or put under heavy load

As far as mine goes hopefully its a non-defective. as I can go about quiet well. I tested by first setting affinity to first two cores and used PCSX2. and did same for the other two. Worked the same no problems.
Also did a bit of prime95 (half hour!) no errors!!

@Register
If you see in my sig, it says Radeon HD 4200. Its on-board all-right. but it works great for PC games at my native res([email protected]). I can play Batman Ark Asly,Resident evil 5 and recent games on high settings!!